European patent application Nos. 0 062 063 and 0 050 271 describe an automatic exchange of yarn spools in spinning machines, by replacing sections of spools in a ring spinning machine. A number of spool carriers for neighboring spinning stations on each side of the machine comprise a group and are arranged at a mobile magazine. The magazine or pairs of them can be moved in the longitudinal direction of the spinning machine by means of a transport device, and a lifting device serves to deposit respective magazines either alone or in pairs at a predetermined location, and they can be picked up again by the lifting device.
A drawback of such apparatus is that the conveying means of the apparatus brings the sections with the full spools from a magazine at one end of the spinning machine, and it delivers the sections with the empty spools into a magazine at the other end of the machine. Thus, there is a substantial loss of time for transport of the full and empty spools. Consequently, a greater number of the handling devices is required or the operation of the various handling devices needs to be very precisely coordinated or programmed for the operation of the associated ring spinning machine.